Importance of Antivirus

The one and only method of removing computer viruses and other malicious stuff is using an efficient antivirus software application. A good quality antivirus application provides real-time protection for e-mail programs and the files they receive. There are a number of antivirus programs available in the market such as Symantec Norton Antivirus, Antivirus McAffe, and Kaspersky Antivirus.

While buying an antivirus, you should keep certain things in mind. You should always purchase an updated version that is also from a reputed distributor or dealer to avoid the risk of having Trojan or virus on your system. As the purchasing process gets over you need to start installing the antivirus. The installer in a series of screen usually provides instructions. All that you need is an internet connection to install the updated software.

Spyware - What Everyone Needs to Know

What is Spyware?

Spyware is a type of malicious software that is installed on your computer without your consent. It is usually a very small piece of software that installs so quickly you don't even know it. Once installed, it runs in the background undetected. The purpose of spyware is to take partial control of your computer or to intercept data from your computer. Spyware is created by unscrupulous developers who wish to take something from you for their own purposes. What is taken depends on the purpose of the spyware, and could be anything from bandwidth to highly confidential personal information.

Some Examples of what Spyware Does

Some spyware takes control of your computer and can turn it into a "zombie" that is under the control of the programmer. Hijacked computers are often placed into "zombie farms" that include hundreds (or thousands) of other computers that are also under control of the spyware owner. These zombies are often rented to spammers or hackers who use these computers as mail relay agents or in targeted attacks against other websites.

Review of Norton 360 4.0

Strengths

This new version of Norton Antivirus is especially good at finding and taking care of malware. It not only gets it off your computer whenever it is detected, but also helps to block it from appearing in the first place, so you won't have to deal with it. There are not many programs that claim to be able to do this, but this one has gone above and beyond most antivirus programs. It also has an extremely effective parental control feature which allows parents to filter certain content on the Internet to protect young users.

When you activate this program on your computer, you will also be able to block websites that are meant for phishing to collect sensitive information. This program also comes with a strong firewall that is nearly impossible to penetrate. You will also be able to manage your passwords and private data to ensure that none of your information is duplicated and used inappropriately for marketing purposes.

How To Recover A Corrupted Hard Drive With No Data Loss

In this case, it becomes important to resolve the system issues caused by missing or corrupt drivers, Windows registry entries that have become corrupted, or system not being able to read HDD external hard drives. Hard drive data recovery is not an easy task. An easy way to make the disk space usable again is to format it and then reboot the computer. Doing this would delete all existing data. You can further reinstall the setup wizard either from Windows boot disk or download the class specific driver required. You will lose all the media and files that you have been saved on this disk drive, and there is no way to recover disk space once it has been overwritten.

Unless you are dealing with a completely dead media storage that has experienced a hardware failure, there are ways to restore some of the material that was stored on your drive. What do you do when you accidentally hard-delete a file and need to restore it? Download and install data recovery software or ask for online technical support to restore from backup. For this you need to have a backup system set on your computer that saves file changes on a regular basis. Windows 7 has an in-built disk partitioning utility that can help Windows users utilize different portions of their drive without running the risk of crashed hard disk. Without a Windows backup, a corrupt disk would require you to reinstall Windows and lose all previous settings.

Securekeeper Spyware Removal - How to Get Rid of This Malicious Program Now

SecureKeeper, also known as Secure Keeper, is one of many rogue antispyware programs that is promoted by the use of Trojan viruses, which is still one of the most dangerous computer threats that exists. These Trojan viruses pretend to be video or flash updates that are necessary, but they will install SecureKeeper instead. These viruses then configure SecureKeeper to start automatically and wreak havoc on any computer that it is installed on. Like other rogue spyware removal programs, the 'cleaner' will run thoroughly and then tell you that you have a laundry list of viruses, spyware threats, and other malicious threats. However, it will go on to inform you that you need to purchase the program in order to remove the threats that are present on your computer.

Here are a few things to remember when it comes to dealing with programs like SecureKeeper. 

Antivirus Software Just Isn't Enough

There's no excuse for not using an antispyware program these days. Having one of these programs can help with spyware infestations. Whereas antiviral programs have a definitions database which focuses primarily on malicious programs, antispyware programs concentrate on ad-based trojans and malware. Makers of antispyware are able to focus more in depth on the latest adware-based attacks. Antivirus makers don't have that luxury and need to focus on more broad targets and may run a step or two behind catching the latest spyware threat.

How Can Someone Get Private Information From My Computer?

From the "Ask Booster" column in the June 17, 2005 issue of Booster's Auction News, a free ezine for online auction sellers and enthusiasts.

Dear Booster,

How can someone get private information from my computer?

Thank you,

Evan S.

Minnesota U.S.A.

Dear Evan,

Hackers can get your private information from your computer in a number of ways. Here are the top ways they do it:

* Computer viruses, spyware and adware from e-mails you've received and/or websites you've visited.

* Hacker programs that find unprotected IP addresses are subject to attack. An IP address is a series of several numbers (ex. 65.129.37.84) that identifies your location on the internet. It's like your "internet" telephone number.

* Entering your financial information (i.e., credit card info) into a website that does not offer secure order processing. Your internet browser should show you that you've entered a secure site.

* Having your financial information "intercepted" by a hacker while shopping online at a legitimate website. This is called "pharming" and is becoming a more worrisome threat.

* You downloaded software from that contained a malicious program.

* You fall victim to a "phishing" or "spoof" scam, whereby you GIVE your personal information away.

* Phishing and spoof e-mails appear as if they are coming from a legitimate website. The e-mail generally alarms the recipient with a message such as "your account has been suspended" or telling you that you need to "verify your account." Most eBay and PayPal users have received at least one (if not several more) spoof e-mails appearing to come from either eBay or PayPal.

eBay has information showing you how to spot spoof. I highly recommend your take a few moments and visit http://pages.ebay.com/education/spooftutorial/index.html for this brief tutorial.

* Another growing threat is called "malware" which is a spyware. Malware is a malicious software which logs your keystrokes and forwards the information to a hacker. This type of software can come through viruses and is often included in downloaded applications.

How to Choose an Antivirus Solution in Practice

Choosing antivirus protection can be very difficult. The market is highly competitive and the products are on the leading edge of information technology.

Antivirus vendors have both the knowledge (gained in day-to-day war with cybercriminals) and money to wage an epic brand battle on the field of the computer security. There are a lot of vendors and each of them is pushing dozens of features in their product to the market. How do you really choose between them? Let me try to go deep into this subject in this article.

Security is boring:

Security is always in a conflict with usability. Whether you're working with your documents, playing videogames or watching a movie, no security measures or procedures actually help you with your activity. On the contrary, they're messing around - slowing down your computer, asking for different passwords, forcing you to chose an appropriate folder to save your files in and so on.

Online Webroot Tech Support

Webroot has a large range of computer security products. Webroot security solutions are available for small and medium businesses, consumers and enterprises. Webroot products are of top ratings and that's why adopted by a large number of people globally. You can download music, store digital files, bank, shop, surf and search safely if Webroot Antivirus software is installed on your computer. You can opt for Webroot's Uninterrupted Protection package that automatically renews your subscription when it runs out. You can renew an old subscription, opt out of auto-renewal and request additional downloads for reinstallation. Online Webroot support is also available for troubleshooting issues with this security software.

Kaspersky secures another top spot in real-world anti-virus test

Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 has been named the industry’s best home security solution by Dennis Technology Labs.

Kaspersky Lab’s solution took the top spot in Dennis’ home test for anti-virus protection from April to June 2013.  The test aimed to compare the effectiveness of anti-malware products provided by well-known security companies.

Other products included AVG Anti-Virus Free 2013, Avast! Free Antivirus 8, BitDefender Internet Security 2013, ESET Smart Security 6, McAfee Internet Security 2013, Microsoft Security Essentials, Norton Internet Security 2013, and Trend Micro Internet Security 2013.

The products were exposed to Internet threats that were live during the test period, Dennis said, adding that exposure was carried out in a “realistic” way. The solutions were then given a score out of 400 points.

China Chopper Trojan Tricks Antivirus Engines

A tiny Web shell is easily sneaking past antivirus engines to infect Web servers and, despite its small footprint, researchers at FireEye say it gives attackers a wealth of tools to remotely gain access to systems or set up a more robust attack platform.

Called China Chopper, the remote access Trojan was first identified by malware experts in November and is believed to have been used by financially motivated cybercriminals and targeted attacks as part of cyberespionage activities. The tiny Trojan is only 4 KB, enabling it to slip past antivirus software, according to a team of researchers at Milpitas, Calif.-based security vendor FireEye, which released an analysis of the threat Wednesday. The researchers said the Trojan is compact, flexible and stealthy.

Source: http://www.crn.com/news/security/240159674/china-chopper-trojan-tricks-antivirus-engines.htm

Antivirus Firms: Whitelisting Malware For Law Enforcement Against Policy

Malware designed to help law enforcement conduct surveillance against suspected criminals is not getting a pass by antivirus vendors, according to several leading antivirus firms, which told CRN the companies have strict policies against taking such measures on behalf of investigators or other officials at government agencies.

Whitelisting malware to help law enforcement avoid detection is strictly against policy, the antivirus vendors said. The message from antivirus firms comes just days after child pornography websites cloaked by the anonymizing service Tor were brought down and Eric Marques in Ireland was arrested for allegedly peddling child pornography on sites globally. The sites, hosted by Freedom Hosting, were infected with malware to uncover the identities of people visiting them.

Source: http://www.crn.com/news/security/240159502/antivirus-firms-whitelisting-malware-for-law-enforcement-against-policy.htm#social

How to Fix Printer Errors: Tips

Printers can be terribly frustrating if they are found faulty. However, some easy techniques can solve hundreds of printer issues comfortably. Remote computer help services provide support for fixing your irritating printer issues. With interactive solutions you not only solve the issues but you also become a technician for your own printer in the process.

The session of troubleshooting your printer issues with the online remote tech support providers can also be frustrating. The severity of the frustration can be increased if the computer help experts fail to diagnose the problem. Sometimes they start with the common aspects of the printer problems to detect the root of the problem. If they can't diagnose it immediately, you need not lose heart. They might provide you with a manual book or supportive diagram to detect the problem. You may need to go through such pages to see whether same kinds of problems are being occurred on your printer too. That is why it is always important that you should consult a good and specialized tech support experts.

Software to run when your antivirus solution fails

Running up to date antivirus software on your system is one of the best protections against threats that you encounter locally or on the Internet. While it is highly recommended, it does not offer 100% protection regardless of which programs you are using to protect your computer and its data.

New threats appear on a daily basis and your computer may be vulnerable to them until your antivirus software gets updated to detect and remove these new threats. While heuristics may detect unknown threats, it does not have a 100% detection rate either.

What this means is that your computer may get infected by malware even if you are running antivirus software on it.

If you suspect that something is not right, or know that you are infected but cannot get rid of the infection, you may need to run specialized tools that help you in this regard.

The following lists links to programs that you can run in this case.

Read Full Story: http://www.ghacks.net/2013/08/05/software-to-run-when-your-antivirus-solution-fails/

5 Free antivirus apps to keep your Android smartphone malware-free

Recently, while on a conference call, Google CEO Larry Page revealed that over 1.5 million Android devices are being activated each day. While those numbers are really huge and impressive, there is another, unimpressive side to this too. 

A recent Kaspersky Lab report found that 99.9 percent of all the new malware detected in the first quarter of 2013 has been designed to prey on Android phones. In total, 22,750 new modifications of malicious programs targeting mobile devices were detected this past quarter. The vulnerability of this popular platform is exactly why Android users must invest in some research and pick a good anti-virus application for their devices. 

The Google Play store is full of such options. Below is a list of 5 popular anti-virus apps:

TrustGo Antivirus & Mobile Security app by TrustGo Inc.

A free application, the TrustGo Antivirus & Mobile Security app protects Android devices from prevailing dangers like malware and virus, along with other dangers including personal privacy, identity and data theft. It detects and removes all malware-ridden apps and viruses

Read Full Story: http://tech2.in.com/features/apps/5-free-antivirus-apps-to-keep-your-android-smartphone-malwarefree/910118

The 10 Hottest Information Technology Skills for 2013

Computerworld.com recently released an article entitled "10 Hot IT Skills for 2013," which surveyed 334 IT executives.

If you're considering Information Technology for your online degree, see if some of these 10 hot IT skills match up with your strengths. If you're enrolled or have graduated with a degree in IT, remember to accentuate these skills when you compose resumes and cover letters. We will also include in the list below the most relevant online degrees for each of the 10 hottest IT skills:

1. Programming and Application Development

The Computerworld.com report said during the recession a few years ago, organizations fell behind on projects. Currently, they're playing catch-up by adding staff members - most likely contributing to the more favorable employment picture (7.8% national unemployment in September 2012, compared to 10% in October 2009).

Degree: Information Technology

2. Project Management

With IT projects growing more and more complex in the modern era of advanced technology, the demand for project managers is becoming very strong.

Degree: Information Management - Project Management

Simple Steps to Secure Your Computer

Since you're reading this article, you're already connected to the Internet. You've probably already thought about security on your computer or network. Every day seems to bring new threats and it can seem pretty daunting, but the key thing is to have a common sense approach and to take a few basic precautions.

There are some simple things you can do to protect your computer. The best bit is that many of them are free and just a matter of common sense. Others will involve a little expense, but I promise it won't be much and it'll be worth every penny.

BACKUPS

Securing your information starts here. You'll need some or all of the security tools listed below, but even then you can't guarantee 100% that you won't have a problem. Hardware failures do occur so backup your data. I've never lost data through a virus, but I have lost it through disk crashes. Learn from my mistakes and back up your data.

One easy way to back up your important files is to burn them onto CD or DVD.